Gnarly... and cold.

Wicked looking weather forecast - great front whipping through from the north, clearing out the southerly and rain...

Well, it was supposed to arrive at 2pm but didn't. I was down at Locus all set up with my Xbow 13 and Mako & Flydoor... got some runs on the 'door and some on the Mako then the front TRULY arrived! I landed the kite about 10 seconds before massive gusts came through... kites were sliding down the beach, guys with 7's up were tea-bagging, sand was stinging exposed skin... it was gnarly!

There was supposed to be a course racing practice and although lots of people got out, nobody had much joy. Flysurfer guy was here again too, on a S3 12 DLX but as the bad gusts came in he dropped the kite and (apparently) broke a line... but he didn't self-rescue, he just floated in until the kite snagged on the river mouth walls. Odd fellow... does odd things when I tried to land his kite for him too...

I got to ride though, and got the feel of the Xbow again so that was nice. Water and wind were every which way though so it was survival kiting... I labeled the wind as 'crappy' cos it was so freakin gusty, making riding a real trial! Looking at the weather, you could say there was a delta-V of 30knots :o looked like snow was falling later on too... yikes what a day!

Moment of the Day was surprising myself that I could get out riding upwind on my 13 and Flydoor while Junkie Sensei struggled on his 9 and directional!

Weather was recorded like this...
2pm... 11knots
3pm... 7knots
4pm... 8knots
5pm... 22knots (with gusts to 38knots!!!)
6pm... 11knots
and temperature of 8°C falling to 5... around 77% humidity. That'll be why I'm cold then :o

What I learned today...
• The forecast is usually about an hour off in this season.
• When NW but the waves are coming from the N, it's going to be rough riding...
• But when the wind switches to N and the waves to NW then there's massive gusts coming.
• If all you can see at the blow line is white, then get the kite landed and secured.
• Harden up and try that 7 out!!!